Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/152

136 children was early gratified. His oldest son says, that when a few years later he told his father that the youngest of the family, thirteen years old, wished to unite with the church, he burst into joyful tears, exclaiming, “I have n’t deserved this. How good God is to me,—so much better than I deserve!” He had no greater joy than to see his children walk in the truth. In his old age he rejoiced with joy unspeakable as one after another his grandchildren came into the fold. He was wont to say, with thanksgiving, that of his twenty-five grandchildren all over twelve years of age were members of the church, some of them entering into communion at a very tender age.

He was greatly interested in the cause of Total Abstinence, and took every opportunity to enforce his views on this subject. The following stories were often told by him in public addresses and in private conversations:—

“When a boy of twelve years, I was in a field a mile from home, on a bright October day, helping to gather in the potato crop. A man came up to us, and asked if we had heard the news. We said no. ‘Last night on his way home from the fair Rob Scott murdered two men without any apparent cause.’ In our village there were two fairs or great market days in the year. On these days the liquor shops were doing a great business, and men who were sober all through the year became intoxicated. Rob Scott was of this number. He had tasted whiskey only once before in his life, and that fatal night he overtook two men walking peacefully home, and in a frenzy knocked down one and then the other, and ran to a cottage a short distance off and cried aloud, ‘I have killed two men down on the road.’ He was known by the family, as he lived only a half-mile